Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) is set to direct a new Star Trek film for Paramount Pictures, but as of right now, the project has been put on hold. It was explained that the story for his film would have centered around “a virus that wipes out vast parts of the known universe.” It’s been said that the reason the film was put on hold was that the storyline hit too close to home with the current state of the world.
It was already revealed that the movie would start from scratch with a whole new crew and cast that would not involve Captain Kirk or Captain Picard. Hawley also explained that the movie was pretty far along in development with the script completed, and he was hiring designers to help him conceptualize the film’s look.
During a recent interview with Observer, Hawley opened up a bit more about the project and shared some additional details on what his vision for this Star Trek is, and how he’s looking to bring back the smart aspect of the franchise. He explains that his story is less about action and more about exploration and creative problem solving:
“What I love about Star Trek is that it’s not a war story. It’s not a story in which might makes right. It’s a story about exploration. It’s a story about creative problem solving. My favorite moment in all of Star Trek is in Wrath of Khan when Kirk puts on his reading glasses to lower Khan’s shields. It’s a brief moment that is so exhilarating because he’s using the best tool he has, which is his mind. As much as I like the Chris Pine movies they were mostly about running from one end of the ship to the other to put out a fire, to stop a thing, and then before he could catch his breath he had to do something else. They’re much more action movies and what I wanted to get back to was this idea of humanity justifying existence in the universe by showing its best qualities.”
I always did love those older Star Trek films. While I have enjoyed Abrams’ films, they aren’t as good as those original real Star Trek films. Hawley previously said that the film would connect to franchise history, drawing a comparison to how his Fargo series is tied to the 1996 film. He explained:
“We’re not doing Kirk and we’re not doing Picard. It’s a start from scratch that then allows us to do what we did with Fargo, where for the first three hours you go, ‘Oh, it really has nothing to do with the movie,’ and then you find the money. So you reward the audience with a thing that they love.”
Hopefully, Hawley gets to make his Star Trek movie. I’d really like to see his vision come to life. Wat do you think about the direction he’s looking to take the film so far?